Tom Zenk on the Law listen to the interview  at Live Audio Wrestling

Main points of Tom Zenk's  Interview on the Law 05.19.2001

 

1. WWF is going to take a BIG financial hit this year.

• Vince has lost at least $60 million this year on the XFL , with more losses to come way into 2003

• Plus a $50 million hit to Vince’s buddies over at NBC.

• Ebersol said the $50 million figure being batted around as NBC's loss from the XFL project is "in the ballpark."

• Those losses are worse than Bischoff's.

• WWF Ratings - McMahon is just holding his spot but the signs are bad.

• Smackdown is down

• All the weekend shows are down

• RAW hasn't managed to pick up any significant numbers from WCW

• House shows are down and they've increased ticket prices to make up the slack – and I hear they’re cancelling house shows because of low ticket sales

• Merchandise is down; video sales are down;

• The advertising market has collapsed. Vince was holding emergency meetings with advertisers last week

• UPN has lost faith in Vince – they axed the XFL -  and they’re talking about cutting Smackdown back to 90 minutes

• In Hollywood, Vince’s star has burned out -  in the last 11 weeks he went frrom having 24 hours a day promotion for his XFL to only getting a purgatory time slot for his WCW.

• Just watch as everyone starts climbing off the bandwagon

• WCW made $80 million losses last year - how can Vince afford to run the WCW even at half strength?

2. Vince needs Goldberg
 

• Goldberg can help Vince get back all his losses from XFL.

• Without Goldberg, the new WCW becomes an XFL style deal.

• If Vince can't get Goldberg- then he may as well kill off the WCW

• Vince can't risk TWO FAILURES in six months - Wall Street will mark HIS STOCK down even more…..

• Just imagine Goldberg without Nash and Hogan sabotaging him.

- who allowed Nash to be the booker - they all went for it - they killed Gooldberg's fire - and they killed the WCW.

- I don't feel any sympathy for anyone in the WCW crew. They deserved everything they got because they ALL helped destroy the business -

- if I'd worked there I'd have run out and pinned Arquette.

• Think if Goldberg was made a star the way ONLY Vince can do it.

• And think of Goldberg as the WWF #1 babyface.

• Think of Goldberg vs HHH for the next Wrestlemania

3. Triple H  - good to see Triple H getting elevated to top dog – ready to replace Austin
 

• That’s a smart move by McMahon – I mean, how much longer has Austin last?

• One more injury and Austin’s gone.

• So Vince has Triple H  ready to take over.  Vince is preparing the ground for Austin's retirement. They’re turning Austin into a middle aged man with a trophy wife – not the badass Stone Cold Steve Austin

• I remember Triple H back in the WCW - down there they said he was too much like Flair - and they killed him off.

• God knows I love Flair but what was the story behind him leaving WCW with the belt back in 1991. Was that professional?

• Instead of pushing Triple H , WCW got rid of him and pushed DDP instead!!  Can you see DDP as WWF champion? DDP vs TripleH    DDP vs The Rock?

• I guess with the Rock looking to the movies, and Austin one injury away from retirement, Triple H is being positioned as top dog.

• It’s good to see young guys coming up and old guys - like Austin - getting ready to move over. That’s good for the business.

4. After the XFL failure – Vince should stick to wrestling – and get WWF back on track
 

• People think Vince is a genius with the Midas touch, but the truth is Vince has never successfully built any business from scratch. EVERY business he started has failed.

• Look at the XF Failure,  WBF  , Ico Pro ,  even his first business, a roller rink (went bankrupt).

• McMahon DIDN'T start the WWF. He changed a few letters but it was really just his DADDY's business.

• The WWF filled the vacuum created by the collapse of every other wrestling territory.

• And Vince didn't beat WCW - WCW fell on their own sword - or more truthfully, Bischoff killed it. Bischoff had access to the deepest pockets ever in Ted Turner, and he still managed to sink the ship. Good luck Matrats.

• Bottom line is, VKM's "success" in professional wrestling is a result of Vince McMahon's competitors being greater failures.

5. The crime of the whole situation is that XFL failure and the new WCW are built on the WWF’s wrestlers’ backs.
 

• Vince has over 733 XFL staff feeding off the wrestlers - and some of these XFL guys are locked into two to three year contracts - with minimum XFL contract obligations around $50 million a year up to 2003

• On top of that WWF admin staff have doubled in the last year -  but there's been no big increase in profits to cover their costs.

• Some notes  –

• Quote [Report to SEC] - At March 1, 2001, WWF had 326 full-time XFL staff, including the individual team business offices and coaching staff, and 397 football players.

• Quote - The number of WWF personnel as of January 26, 2001 was 677 (402 excluding 275 full and part-time WWF New York employees)   - up from 316 in 2000.

• Quote - WWF's aggregate minimum payment obligations under these contracts is $56.9 million, $49.1 million, and $42.8 million for fiscal 2001, 2002 and 2003, respectively.

• Plus Vince is spending about $3 million a year company money to lease a private jet.

• Quote (report to the SEC) "Since October 2000, travel costs increased by $1.9 million, due in part to costs associated with our lease of a corporate jet."

• That means the XFL failure is going to cost a lot more than the figures published so far. And all that money was earned by the WWF boys – and pocketed by McMahon.

• Like Melter says - WWF is more profitable than baseball only because WWF don't pay baseball salaries. Instead McMahon spends it on business disasters.

6. Remember last time I was on your show we talked about WWF salaries - have you ever heard anyone in WWF brag about their salaries?  After the show Jim Ross attacked me in the Ross report.That was just after Alex Rodriguez signed for $252 million for the Rangers.

• And Dave Meltzer wrote about how the average salary of a major league baseball player was $1.8 million.

• Yet, there isn't one team, including the New York Yankees, that takes in half the money per year as the WWF.

• And still the average salary of a WWF wrestler is less than half that of the average major league player, and only one-fifth that of a player on the Yankees.

• Dave followed that up with more info from Jim Ross that the total money paid to performers this year in the WWF will be in the $60 million range

• Well if WWF really did spend $60 million on talent payment as has, what? 70 plus on the roster - then that's  $800 - 900,000 a year each - or half the average salary of a major league baseball player ($1.8 million).

• And how much does WWF take in from their work? A hell of a lot more than any baseball team?

• But now Ross is down in Atlanta conning WCW employees with the promise of  "more money than they ever dreamed of"

• At the same time he's asking the Time Warner contract guys to make sacrifices.

• And he’s telling Flair to drive down from NC to see ol’ Ice Face – because Vince wouldn’t even send Ric a plane ticket

• And saying they can't hire Goldberg because WWF can't match his WCW salary?

• that’s the old carney con.

• So what are they planning to do -  have two salary scales - one for WWF New York and one for WCW - southern division.

• Or is the New York scale already so low they're trying to drive the WCW guys down to that level.

Next big hit for Vince - Independent Contractors Class Action – back taxes, pensions and insurance
 

Bischoff and WCW collapse and sale

I read that Bischoff was still under Time Warner contract until three weeks ago. How can he be on Time Warner salary and acting for Fusient in the WCW sale at the same time? Does anyone know?

I hear there are some Time Warner shareholders in the middle of initiating a class action law suit to obtain recovery of the WCW company losses.
 
 

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